Annie and the Blue-Eared Kid
Annie and the Blue-Eared Kid is a novel written by D. Isaac Thomas. Although he began work on it in 2009, he was stalled and it was not finished and published until 2015. It is the twentieth book in the D.I.T. Literary Universe and the eighth part of Part Three: The Growing Universe. Summary Nine-year-old Annie McCallin has seen much through the adventures she's found herself in, but never did she think she'd meet a socially awkward outcast with blue ears. But at a play during Summer Break, she does. But when both of them meet up at summer camp, and are later captured and enslaved to two villainous fiends, they must work together or be destroyed. Synopsis As the sun was setting over the city of Provo, Annie McCallin awoke from a nap. The last day of school had just barely ended, and Annie had come home and gone to sleep. Now it was time to go to a play starting at 5. After putting on her backpack, Annie skipped out of the house and walked down to the theater. When she arrived, she took a seat near the front, between a teenager and a woman. And then the lights dimmed. As the crowd grew quiet, the show began. It was a Toy Story crossover. Annie watched the play with rapt attention. Although most of the play recapped the movie, Annie noted there were several changes, outtakes, and new scenes. In Act 7, Annie saw the girl playing Jessie had blue ears, surprising her greatly. The rest of the play was hard to process. After it ended, Annie found the actress talking to Shelby, her friend from school. When she got her attention, Annie and the girl introduced themselves. As Shelby left, the girl, whose name was Savannah, told Annie she did not know why her ears were blue. Savannah then pointed out that differences can be good at times, if the subject was not misunderstood. Annie halfway agreed. Savannah revealed that "they've got something cool planned", just as a young woman (name unknown) walked up to them. Savannah urged Annie away. After saying hello to two other actors, Annie left the theater. The next day, Annie received a notice in the mail. It promoted C2 Camp, an outdoor summer camp that was fully supervised and promoted several activities. Annie and her mom took turns reading the flier. The mentioned activities were all things Annie loved to do. She told her mother that Savannah had told her about it. She also expressed that she worried Savannah may have other issues besides her blue ears. Mrs. McCallin told her she should be nice. Annie asked her where the camp was, to which her mom said it was a 15-minute drive. She also revealed that a bus picked her up in the morning. Annie asked if she could go, and Mrs. McCallin said yes. A few mornings later, Annie was all ready to go. The bus arrived, and Annie saw it pull up. She flung her backpack on and rushed toward the bus. A beautiful woman named Charity Hirz introduced herself to Annie, who returned her handshake. Charity, whom Annie assumed was their teacher, revealed Savannah was coming as well. Annie rushed inside the bus. She only recognized two kids - Freddy from school and Savannah, the latter of which she sat with as Charity walked in and drove the bus to C2 Camp. Finally, the bus arrived. Charity and her assistant, Cherical McSnake, had built the camp next to the lake. There were several small buildings, a flag, a soccer goal, a spot for circle time... there was even a canoe! Annie smiled as she looked around, realizing everything was ready. Charity told the kids to meet her by the flag. Annie didn't ask who Cherical, who had stepped toward the flag, was. Instead she trustingly followed Charity there. There, Charity revealed Cherical was their teacher, calling him by his code name, Cherical McGregor. Disappointed, Annie lamented about how she hoped Charity could be their teacher instead. Finally, Charity agreed to give them a tour of the camp. Thus Charity showed them around, and told them the uses for the lake, arts and crafts room, and rec room. Last of all she led the group over to her office. She then left them and headed inside. Cherical led them over to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Annie wondered what Charity was doing as she followed Cherical to the American flag. After saying the pledge, Cherical showed them the camp rules. Annie had already assumed most of these weren't allowed, and so did Savannah. After that, Cherical said all the kids were free to look on their own, and that if anyone wanted to do the swimming tests now, they could. Annie, Seth, and Pamela walked up, and everyone else explored on their own. Annie knew all the basics of swimmimg and more. Pamela and Seth also passed the test. For lunch, they roasted hot dogs over the barbecue pit. Annie got a bit distracted, and ended up burning hers. However, she was able to trade with Savannah, who liked burned hot dogs. Three hours later, Cherical called all the kids back to the circle and asked them if they had fun. He then went over to Charity's office and told her it was time to take the campers back home on the bus. Two minutes later, Charity came out and climbed onto the bus, before signaling the others to do the same. As she drove them home, she also revealed that she and Cherical would take them to Big Castle Park two months from then. When the bus dropped Annie off, Annie's parents were waiting at the door. They were anxious to see how Annie's first day had gone. As the bus took off, Annie said it was OK. She also revealed that Cherical was their teacher, though she did like him. Mrs. McRae nodded, and Mr. McRae went inside. Annie walked in, and Mrs. McRae closed the door behind her. On the table, milk and ants-on-a-log were waiting for her. Annie sat down and began to eat, and was soon joined by her brother. But what she was really thinking about was the end-of-summer field trip. Savannah had said that Big Castle Park was fun, yet scary. The second day was different. Savannah and Rose did the swimming test as well. Savannah seemed to show off a little during the tryouts, but she did pass. Afterwards, the group did many organized activities together, including football and hiking. On the third day, both of them had fun together. Annie also got to know the other kids, and developed a slightly stronger affection than the others for Freddy and Rose. Every day after that proved to be just as appealing. Annie and Savannah spent a lot of time together. Football and tennis were played often, as well as soccer. Annie and Savannah fished together several times. During the first arts-and-crafts session, Annie won first place for her clay sculpture of Jedi Master Yoda's head. Once, Savannah rode the canoe with Annie as her passenger. Savannah also proved to have an incredible level of talent, especially when it came to tennis and swimming. In fact, both of them had so much fun over the next two months that they almost forgot about the field trip. Annie had never been, but Mrs. McRae promised it would be fun. She was also eluded about why Charity Hirz had not shown up once during camp, although she always drove the kids to their homes on the bus. On the third-to-last day of summer camp, Charity drove the kids to school again. She climbed out and headed right for her office. Cherical rounded up the kids, but then Annie asked if she could visit Charity in her office, since she missed her. Although Charity was accompanying them on the end-of-year field trip, Cherical agreed to let her. When the announcements were over, Annie headed for Charity's office. When Annie arrived, she was surprised to see, through the glass door, what Charity was up to. She was eating cookies and watching television, clad in a bra that left her midriff entirely exposed. One end of the room had a refrigerator and the other had a desk with a phone and computer. Finally, Annie knocked. Charity was still relaxing on a couch when she asked who was at the door. Annie said it was her. After getting up, Charity grabbed her blue leather jacket and headed to the door. From behind the door, she asked Annie what she wanted. Annie replied that she wanted to spend some time with her before camp ended. Charity unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door whilst putting on the jacket. She then beaconed Annie inside. It was only now that she noticed Charity was wearing jean shorts and was barefoot. Charity told Annie to sit down, and then went to fetch a small bottle. She walked over to sit by Annie, then revealed that the pills inside were to help her with her infamous surgery from when she was 8. She claimed it would not be long before she was strong enough to teach the students again. She also said that it was best to relax during the operation. Annie said there were some odd things in her life, which helped her believe Charity's story. She then asked what had happened with Charity's surgery, but they were then interrupted by Cherical, who claimed it was time to take everyone home. Shocked, Charity ushered Annie outside, where Savannah asked her where she had been. Annie explained that she had a talk with Charity, but was then disturbed to notice Cherical and Charity talking about a secret remote with malicious tones. The next day, and the eve of Big Castle Park, Cherical was reading to the kids when Charity activated the remote and flung Savannah away from the group. Bewildered, Annie got up to see Savannah wildly jerking in both directions involuntarily before lifting ten meters into the air. Lightning circled around her frozen, screaming form until she hit the ground hard. Then she lifted back into the air...and landed. This process repeated itself several times. Then Annie turned toward Charity's office and was shocked to see Charity using the remote and smiling. Finally she stopped, and Savannah hit the ground hard. Rushing to Savannah's motionless form, Annie asked her if she was all right. Savannah knew what had happened, but she did not know that Charity had tortured her because of a memory wipe. Annie looked over at Charity. The following sadistic laugh was not help, neither was her disappearing into the office. Annie rushed toward Charity's office and knocked. Charity headed toward the door. Annie immediately confronted her for torturing Savannah. Charity opened the door, and Annie stormed inside. Charity calmly asked her if she was trying to initiate a fight, one of which she thought Annie found to be an easy win. When Annie demanded for her reasons for the torture, Charity merely replied that Savannah deserved it. With that, Charity used the remote to shoot Annie upward and out of the building, back into the camp itself. When Annie landed, she immediately realized the situation had to be a conspiracy, this coupled from the other events. Before Cherical could address Annie, Charity told him Annie was no longer allowed to attend the camp via phone, which Cherical immediately revealed to Annie. Cherical assured her Savannah would be fine. On the way home, Annie was unsure whether she should tell her parents she suspected the teachers were secretly wicked people, especially if they were not. A week after this, Charity and Cherical held a ceremony to test the kids’ loyalty. When Annie and Savannah did not pass, Charity attempted to have both of them burned at the stake. However, the other workers rescued the girls. After summoning her robots, Charity helped Cherical to deal with the threat. As the battle began, Freddy and Pernilla led the kids to fight Cherical. After taking them briefly hand-to-hand, Cherical used the third lightning cuff to conjure a fire, setting the room’s posts and cross letters ablaze. This prompted Freddy to run, much to the surprise of several kids. After one last swish to expand the fire, Charity told Cherical to stop with the flames, to which he obliged. Cherical blasted one of the kids into a wall, but chose to spare him. Robot bodyguards came pouring in, as they were unable to help Charity. They identified Freddy as the leader of the resistance and held him at bladepoint. Cherical begged the robots not to spear Freddy, but the robots ignored him. Thinking Cherical did not intend to murder one of his own, Annie snatched his sword and cut the two robots down. Cherical thanked Annie, but this gave June an opening to snatch the lightning cuffs and throw them into the flames. Cherical was finally overwhelmed by the kids’ following attack and decided to flee. He started climbing up a large pile of rubble. Meanwhile, Charity ordered Savannah to take a sword, lightning cuff, and pair of rocket boots; then performed a lightning blast and a sweeping deflection, though Savannah was able to resist the latter and duck to the edge of the shield. However, Savannah decided that if she was going to die, she would die fighting, and emerged to face Charity. Her blade angled to block, Charity indirectly called Savannah weak. Savannah retorted to the statement before attacking. Charity took the blow and riposted, speeding up, forcing Savannah to retreat. Savannah then twirled and blocked a slash, weaving a defensive pattern with her blade. Though Savannah was young, Charity mused that she needed to conduct herself cautiously if she was to defeat her. As such, she adopted a fairly defensive posture. As the duel progressed, Savannah found that, while she was still able to anticipate Charity’s attacks and defend herself, she could find no openings in Charity’s assault. As such, all she could do was to simply block Charity’s blows, the act of which was rapidly depleting her energy. Charity sensed Savannah’s failing strength and derisively taunted the girl. Savannah cryptically responded that the dark side could never win in the end. Knowing her true motives, Charity refused to be baited. Savannah lunged again, but Charity was ready, bringing them into a momentary bladelock. Charity shoved hard, breaking the lock and forcing Savannah to pull back. After another exchange, Charity seized the offense and began to chivvy Savannah into the shield’s side. Just as Charity was about to deliver a finishing strike, however, Savannah unleashed a sudden flurry of attacks that forced a surprised Charity to pull back. As the two circled one another, Charity’s slight decrease in speed allowed Savannah to end the bout with a swift kick to the woman’s jaw. Charity was thrown off balance, staggering back and dropping her sword as she flailed for balance before retreating against the edge of the shield. Savannah brought her blade down, but Charity rocketed into the air and shot lightning at Savannah. Savannah retaliated and deflected the attack with her sword. Eventually, Savannah’s sword disintegrated, causing her to lose it. She fired lightning just as Charity did. The bolts collided, and both attempted to repel the other’s weapon. Finally, the bolts rebounded and slammed into the wall. Charity grabbed Savannah by the throat, and Savannah grasped Charity’s neck. Their attacks finally rebounded off one another and Savannah fell, painfully, on the ground. Charity, on the other hand, landed safely. Eventually, Charity deserted the fight and climbed after Cherical. However, she lost her balance, fell into the flames and died in the main room, as she did not have the ability to stop the fire. After Savannah escaped from the fire, she found a control console and activated the sprinklers, effectively putting out the flames. Cherical climbed down and ordered the kids back to work, though Charity's death still haunted him. Behind the scenes According to D. Isaac Thomas, he had permission to use Sabrina Carpenter, who deeply resembled his visage of Annie, on the cover of the book. Critical response Gallery External Links Annie and the Blue-Eared Kid - Novelization Category:Annie and the Blue-Eared Kid Category:2015 books Category:Books Category:Part Three: The Growing Universe books Category:PG-rated books